2 Take regular rest days and recovery weeks.
There should be at least one no-training day per week and one recovery training week (no high intensity work), after every two or three hard training weeks. This allows the body to adapt to the hard training that you have been subjecting to it.

3 Alternate between hard and easy training days.
It takes much longer to recover from high intensity sessions. By avoiding hard workouts on consecutive days you will help your body to recover much more quickly. This way you have a half decent chance of benefiting from your efforts.

4 Spend time working on your technique.
Good technique will enable the muscles and joints to work in the correct way. Time spent working on this in the winter will make you more efficient in races; subsequently your form is less likely to deteriorate when you get tired. When this happens, injuries are more likely.

5 Attend to muscle or joint pains as soon as possible.
Most chronic injuries start out as a minor ache and develop into something more painful. Attending to these little niggles can keep you out of trouble. One way to avoid this is to take a regular massage. Tight and knotted muscle fibres are a bit like tangled spaghetti. A good masseur will be able to identify any tight spots and start to unravel the 'spaghetti' immediately.

6 Don't rush your rehabilitation
If you do get injured then take your rehabilitation slowly. With your coach and physio, you should develop a plan of action with goals for each week and then stick to them. Remain positive and cheerful and try to think about other aspects of your life that you might have neglected. Trying to come back too fast will usually end up with a great deal more pain and frustration.

7 Proper warm-ups and cool-downs
An effective warm-up will ensure that you get the most out of each training session. You should always allow a minimum of 10 mins to perform a progressive warm-up. It is worth pointing out that the warm-up should be one that is appropriate to you, so don't be afraid to do your own thing or get there a bit earlier than everyone else. As important as the warm-up is the cool-down, at the end of the training session. Taking time to cool down at the end of the training session helps to clear out the toxins generated by hard training. Once again, 10 mins will suffice.

8 Always listen to your body
Your body says NO but your friends say GO. So what do you do? You GO. For whatever reason; peer pressure, ego, stubbornness, you choose to ignore the sensible course of action. The only real outcome is that you will feel worse in some way. If you really don't feel up to training then take the day off, or carry out a low intensity workout.

9 Make sure you learn from your mistakes
Time-after-time we hear athletes say things like "I always get injured around March or April." Or, "It usually feels sore after I have been to the track." For the same event to happen twice might be coincidence, three times is just plain stupid. Analyse when and why your injuries occur and then do something about it, so that it doesn't happen all over again.

10 Ensure you use appropriate and well-maintained equipment.
For instance, running shoes should be replaced after about 500 miles, no matter how good they still look. Bikes should be well maintained and regularly serviced. After all, a 30mph descent is not the best place to discover that your brake blocks are worn.

NB Some of what we are talking about is breaking old habits. It's easy to develop a pattern of training and recovery which suits you, although it may not be right for you. This is your comfort zone. Sometimes though you have to accept that to improve means stepping outside the comfort zone. You have to break old habits and develop new ones. One of the best ways to do this is to have someone else give your training programme and overhaul. A good coach can help you restructure your training programme, assess and highlight deficiencies in technique, as well as suggesting ways to improve.